You can scarcely throw a 100-sided die in Vista without hitting a brewery, and come the weekend of May 6, two guys used to utilizing that role-playing game tool will debut the latest entrant into that sudsy community—Battlemage Brewing Company (2870 Scott Street, Suite 102, Vista). Best friends and fermentationists Ryan Sather and Chris Barry named their interest after a hybrid class from a game they’ve been playing for the past 20 years: D&D (Dungeons and Dragons, non-RPGers). Sather has spent the three years working at Home Brew Mart. Barry’s Ballast Point Brewing experience is a bit shorter—he’s been there the past year after moving on from managing Mother Earth Brew Co.’s homebrew shop. In opening Battlemage, they are going from advising people on brewing to doing it themselves on a professional scale.
As far as the beers they brew on their five-barrel system, they’re not limiting themselves. Both have medaled in a plethora of categories as homebrewers—IPAs and wide-ranging American, Belgian, English and German styles. The duo expects to offer traditional styles as well as classic styles given twists that make then “truly magical.” A white ale that comes across as a light-hopped blonde ale with the drinkability of a lager will share beer-board space with a aromatically hoppy American amber and a variety of IPAs because, as Sather says, it wouldn’t be San Diego without them. When Battlemage’s doors open, 8 to 10 beers will be on tap. Initial kettle sours will give way to future barrel-aged sour ales, as well. They hope to have a bottle release or two at some point and can once they have the funds to do so, but for now, draft is the name of their game.
The tasting room is designed so customers feel as if they are entering a medieval castle. Weapons and mystical creatures will grace the walls in the smallish space. Sather says he and Barry intend to embrace their nerdy side by putting on a variety of different gaming nights, ranging from fantasy to classic D&D. An event where the comic-book artist who developed Battlemage’s logo teaches patrons how to draw dragons and other graphic delights is under development. Also in the works is a collaboration with the distillery two doors down, Henebery Spirits, where Battlemage will age beers in used barrels, while the distillers will age whiskey in those same barrels once the beer is drained from them.